Chapter 152 - Phantom (Patreon)

The pressure on my body intensifies even more as multiple Cinderbears attack. I slip into [Focus], and [Resonance] activates at the same time. The air, the space around me resonates according to my will, and I change its frequency multiple times until the effects of the attack disappear and I'm freed.

Just in time, I redirect as much kinetic energy as I can towards the ground under me, making it explode as I push myself high in the air. I quickly move to the side as a dozen or so sparks barely miss me.

The ones that are about to touch me, I dissipate with [Resonance] and push myself far in the distance, away from dozens of Cinderbears. The forest behind me immediately explodes under the heat and flames, and I can feel them following me.

The heck!

I don't even have time to complain as another wave of pressure hits me, pulling me down to the ground. I track its source and immediately create two javelins that I fill with kinetic energy and shoot towards the source.

The bear there just uses its spark and appears in a different place, once again reaching towards me.

I cancel out the attack with my skill and propel myself even further, only to be met with a dozen more glowing orange sparks that soon blaze up into massive flames, and even more Cinderbears step out.

Okay.

Okay!

I immediately stop, and instead of running, I start to release my Mana Regulator, and the Kinetic Mana Heart beats loudly.

I will beat you up.

Dark blue armor appears on my body, and my head gets covered by a helmet without any holes. I send perceiving mana into my surroundings. My heart sends waves of kinetic energy through my body, and I use half of it to strengthen it while collecting the remainder.

Dozens of mana orbs appear around me, and I anchor them to my core. With [Mana Surge], I start spinning them around my body, further boosting them with kinetic energy while continuing to make them denser but not to the point where tricolored mana appears.

A loud whistling noise sounds in the surroundings, along with the roars of the bears as I land on the ground.

The first bear dashes at me, the air around him wavering because of heat, and I sling two orbs at his head, one after another. The first one filled with kinetic energy explodes, dissipating some hot air around him, and the other, a bit denser, pierces his skull and immediately kills the monster.

[You have defeated a Cinderbear - lvl 116]

I absorb the remaining thermal energy from his body and transfer it into kinetic energy, sending more orbs towards the weaker monsters.

[You have defeated a Cinderbear - lvl 106]

[You have defeated a Cinderbear - lvl 119]

[You have defeated a Cinderbear - lvl 118]

A stronger one sends sparks towards me, and before I can cancel them, he uses one to materialize near me, with an extremely strong wave of heat reaching me. At the same moment, [Redistribution] activates, and I grab hold of all of that thermal energy, fighting for control over it with the bear. I focus on that even as another bear dashes at me.

I dodge his bite, then uppercut his bottom chin, breaking it. Then I hit his eye and send a thin cone of kinetic energy towards his brain, and the back of his skull explodes into pieces of bone, skin, and brain.

That moment of distraction allows the other bear to overpower me, as I'm trying to grab hold of his heat attack. The armor around my body immediately starts to heat up, and I can see some thinner parts melting. Still, I let the bear continue, and instead of canceling or controlling this attack, I strengthen my armor.

I take a step towards the bear and continue to send more and more of my mana towards my armor, which becomes a darker shade of blue with wisps of light blue mana flowing through it. The ground around us starts to melt, and the grass and the trees catch fire, quickly turning to ash. I take another step towards him.

From a spark behind me, another Cinderbear appears, but I ignore him. As my heart beats, I send a cone of kinetic energy at its head. I make it as thin as possible, transfer all this energy into a thin cone, barely thicker than my wrist, and it goes right through its eye.

The bear dies with a wound that looks like an invisible weapon stabbed him.

After taking the final step, I finally reach the bear attacking me with its heat wave. The armor around me holds strong, even as the bear tries to focus its attack on my chest and head. There are no holes in my armor, and it covers the entirety of my body, cutting it off from the space around me.

Then the bear stops, as if giving up, and this time I collect all the heat around me and all the energy from my heart. I transform it, and a beautiful dark yellow flame fires up from somewhere in front of my chest.

The flame reaches the bear with a massive roar, and for a moment, the bear fights back, holding against my attack. Still, I send more and more of it, making it more viscous, and more dangerous, and soon my flames pierce through the bear's heat aura and hit his head.

They melt his fur, his skin, revealing the skull underneath, and soon they reach its brain, finally killing the monster, which falls with a loud thump.

[You have defeated a Cinderbear - lvl 146]

[Lvl 114 > Lvl 115]

Multiple bears surround me, and the combined heatwave that hits me is hard to counter, so I send a pulse of [Resonance] into my surroundings and dash towards one of the bears.

Mana flows through my body, my mind is sharp, and my heart continues to beat wildly.

Another cone of kinetic energy obliterates one bear; a javelin pierces another one, exploding in the wound.

A shield forms in front of me and starts to melt slowly while I collect more and more mana into a javelin hovering over me, and when the shield disappears, I boost it at the bear.

The javelin pierces the air and starts melting as it gets closer to the monster, yet it's dense enough to reach it, and when the tip of the javelin touches the bear, it explodes. A thin cone of kinetic energy tears though the bear's body and stabs into it.

Then the flames reach it as well, fighting against its own, and soon win over, melting the bear. I pause for a second, and the helmet around my head disappears, and I take in a deep breath.

My body is itching to move, my mana rages through my body, and I feel so alive.

I check the time, and there are still 57 minutes left.

Good, good!

Then, without any warning, I feel a stab in my belly, and when I look down, there is a small green hand holding a knife that seems as if made from obsidian, but there is red mana flowing through the blade. The blade is deep inside my side, totally ignoring my armor.

[Phantom Goblin - lvl ??]

The hand immediately disappears as if becoming invisible, and I can't feel any presence anymore.

A giggle sounds in the surroundings.

In a rage triggered by old memories, without even knowing what I'm doing, all my mana rushes into my heart, and my heart beats loudly enough for me to hear. A wave of kinetic energy that I send all around me is the strongest that I ever produced, and it totally explodes in a large area around me.

Bodies of dead Cinderbears get thrown away like toys, the trees get uprooted from the ground, and the stones and ground fly all away from me, leaving me standing in the crater created by my attack.

Silence.

Then another short laugh followed by silence.

My teeth feel like they are about to break, but I enter a deeper [Focus] and stretch a bandage-like piece of my mana around my wound to stop it from bleeding.

A spark flies next to me, and the bear appears in a massive blaze of flame, and without even recreating my helmet, I step closer and absorb all the thermal energy it throws at me.

I let the armor around me dissipate and sharpen my focus, as even half a second of hesitation or misuse threatens to burn me if I lose control over all that heat.

But I do not.

The ground around us burns, and the air flickers from all that heat as I stop in front of the bear, looking into its eyes.

It bites at me, but before it reaches me, I throw all the kinetic energy I collected at it, I increase the frequency, and with a loud pitching noise, his head explodes, splashing me with blood.

[Redistribution - lvl 29 > Redistribution - lvl 30]

Where are you, you little asshole?

My mana reaches as far as I'm able to, and with deep rage flowing inside me, I look for the invisible monster. I perceive as deeply as never before and consolidate both parts of my [Focus] to strengthen my skill.

[Perception - lvl 29 > Perception - lvl 30]

Then I take a step towards where I felt a movement.

***

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